September 2007 archive

Peach! (Free Software, Free Movies)

Originally published 18 September 2007 in Free Software Magazine.

Apparently I've been living under a rock, because I only recently found out about the Blender project's free and open source short movie, Elephants Dream, when I happened across Terry Hancock's review of it last year at Free Software Magazine.
The motivation behind the project was to create [...]

Thunderbird New Mail Notifier

If you regularly use or have used Windows, you're familiar with the taskbar's notification area (often called the "system tray"), canonically found in the lower right of your screen. This is the place where thoughtless application programmers stuff icons for their programs; programs that often don't deserve or need such a prominent piece of [...]

Cascade River State Park, Minnesota

Cascade River State Park, Minnesota, on the North Shore of Lake Superior.
1600 x 1200
Self service: 1280x1024 1280x960 1152x864 1024x768 800x600 640x480
Shared with: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Shot with: 2 mega-pixel Olympus D-520 camera
Related: Cascade River, again

At Night, the Robot Slept

Blame it on Luis Villa. He wrote about his Roomba and got me thinking. I had also previously heard good things. Hmm...
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, doing the jobs that I don't want to?
The wife was skeptical at first, but I mentioned the good things I was "hearing," that the prices were coming down, and likewise [...]

YARQ! Quotes and Excerpts and Snippets, Oh My!

I like quotes and excerpts. I'm not a big fan of the signature quote in emails and forums -- it becomes repetitive to see the same pearls of wit and wisdom over and over and over again -- but in general I like a good quote and have collected quite a few over the [...]

Celebrating Software Freedom Day: Check out some newly emancipated AI Java example code

An objection I've had to many programming books and web sites is that they don't make sample code available under a free software license. This is within the rights of the author, of course, but it seems counter to the spirit of teaching and sharing knowledge to restrict the use of example code.
A writer [...]

Flowers at an Antique Shop

Full-size original: 2112 x 2816 pixels
Taken with: 6 mega-pixel Canon SD600
Shared with: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

Michel Bauwens comments on the dark side of peer to peer

I first became aware of the P2P Foundation last year after Michel Bauwens sent me a nice email in response to "Free software is a weak mode of production?" I've since followed the P2P Foundation blog in my feed reader.
It is delightfully information-dense with good pointers and commentary about peer production. It can [...]

A Silly Post Brought to You by the Letters E and F

My daughter has a set of Sea & Learn Bath Shapes that are very entertaining for her and me and the wife alike. (The wife might not want to admit that. But for me I can say that they engage my brain more than a typical work-related meeting.)

I happened to notice that the [...]

The Kid

Camping
License: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives